Police in tears as slaughtered children are found

San Francisco: A California man was to be charged with murder after nine bodies - including children he apparently fathered in incestuous, polygamous relationships - were found in his home, police said.

Three babies, four older children, a teenager and a woman aged 24 were found dead in the home of Marcus Wesson, 57, after police were called there on Friday afternoon, said Jerry Dyer, police chief in the central California city of Fresno.

"This is obviously the worst mass murder case that we have had in the history of our city.

"It appears that there's four women that we believe that are the mothers of children . . . that were killed, that [Wesson] is perhaps the father of most if not all of the individuals that were there," he said.

"The most disturbing news . . . was the fact that perhaps two of the children that were found deceased were both his children and his grandchildren."

The scene was so gruesome that a number of police wept.

The dead were a one-year-old boy, two one-year-old girls, four children aged between four and eight, a 17-year-old girl and a 24-year-old woman, police said.

Wesson, who was in custody and was co-operating with the investigation, would be charged with nine counts of murder later on Saturday, the police chief said.

Ten empty coffins were found in the house, police said, although their intended use had not yet been determined. Mr Dyer said they might have been used for storage, or were to be broken down and used to build furniture.

Police arrived at the house in response to a call over a child custody dispute. Two women outside the house wanted Wesson to return their children.

Wesson refused to admit the police and barricaded himself inside a back bedroom. Negotiators and a SWAT team were called in, but before the SWAT team arrived, Wesson, wearing bloody clothes, walked out of the house and was detained.

Police entered the house and discovered the victims stacked one on top of the other, intertwined with clothes.

Authorities had yet to determine the time or cause of death, but neighbours had reported hearing gunshots.